I've concluded that Skyrim feels more like a Fallout game than an Elder Scrolls game and here's my reasons for saying so:

EVERYTHING is in shambles:
Every city in the game is torn either from constant wars or neglect. The outer walls are crumpling and in decay (like found in Whiterun). And Cities are often build upon and around older extinct civilizations (like Markarth on top of the extinct Dwemer city) To further add to this observation, half of the city of Winterhold got destroyed, due to a destructive force of nature, which left half of the city in ruin. And Windhelm is a freezing hell hole where close to nothing can grow properly.
EVERY faction is struggling and a shadow of their former self:Mages Guild: Destroyed and extictBlades: Almost hunted into extinctionCompansions: Keep talking about the glory days with Ysgramor and live in the pass, hunted by Werewolf hunters. Winterhold College: Haven't been the same since Winterhold got torn in half and they got blamed for it.The Dark Brotherhood: Struggling and close to extinction, even left their morals/Teneth's to survive.Thieves Guild: Again.... Struggling. Keep talking about the glory days but now struggle for survival.The Mood of the game:
Beside the fact that everything is gray and freezing cold there's no uplifting/happy characters who stand out beside the clearly insane like ''Cicero'' and ''Sheogorath''. A dude in Whiterun even makes notice of this as says that ''The problem with skyrim is that everyone is obsessed with death'' Perks Added:
Fallout feature right here, I for one welcome the addition though.

In closing: Everything about Skyrim feels post apocalyptic. EVERYTHING is in shambles and the whole tone the game reeks of depression and death with very, very few exceptions. In many ways a lot similar to Fallout, but without the dark not-too-serioues humour of that franchise.

Elder Scrolls taking a page out of Fallout Univserse: Is it for the better or not?

Fully agree. I was expecting a different type of game, Skyrim is just depressing.

I've concluded that Skyrim feels more like a Fallout game than an Elder Scrolls game and here's my reasons for saying so:

EVERYTHING is in shambles:
Every city in the game is torn either from constant wars or neglect. The outer walls are crumpling and in decay (like found in Whiterun). And Cities are often build upon and around older extinct civilizations (like Markarth on top of the extinct Dwemer city) To further add to this observation, half of the city of Winterhold got destroyed, due to a destructive force of nature, which left half of the city in ruin. And Windhelm is a freezing hell hole where close to nothing can grow properly.
EVERY faction is struggling and a shadow of their former self:Mages Guild: Destroyed and extictBlades: Almost hunted into extinctionCompansions: Keep talking about the glory days with Ysgramor and live in the pass, hunted by Werewolf hunters. Winterhold College: Haven't been the same since Winterhold got torn in half and they got blamed for it.The Dark Brotherhood: Struggling and close to extinction, even left their morals/Teneth's to survive.Thieves Guild: Again.... Struggling. Keep talking about the glory days but now struggle for survival.The Mood of the game:
Beside the fact that everything is gray and freezing cold there's no uplifting/happy characters who stand out beside the clearly insane like ''Cicero'' and ''Sheogorath''. A dude in Whiterun even makes notice of this as says that ''The problem with skyrim is that everyone is obsessed with death'' Perks Added:
Fallout feature right here, I for one welcome the addition though.

In closing: Everything about Skyrim feels post apocalyptic. EVERYTHING is in shambles and the whole tone the game reeks of depression and death with very, very few exceptions. In many ways a lot similar to Fallout, but without the dark not-too-serioues humour of that franchise.

Elder Scrolls taking a page out of Fallout Univserse: Is it for the better or not?

Everyone in the whole world lives in the past.Nothing about Skyrim is post apocalyptic. I think you need a new TV if you can't see the beauty of the game world.

With Lydia sometimes she will stand there and I have to go a fair distance away from her before she follows. Why isn't there a button to press to make your follower automatically run up to where you are?

Yesterday when I was playing I was next to a river and there happened to be a bear on the other side of the river and Lydia kept shooting at it and wasting the arrows I gave her. Why is there no option to ask the follower to stop attacking?

When you're in a room or narrow pathway in a dungeon and you want to exit the room/go back sometimes the follower can be blocking the doorway/path and you have to jump over them or push them out of the way to get past.

And is there a way to check the stats of your follower on the console version? If not then that's a fail.